Yesterday evening, hot and hungry, I went out for my last meal in the neighborhood. The hunched, frizzy-haired, toothy-smiled woman who lives two houses down was sitting on the curb munching on something as I walked by. She called out to ask where I was going (like she does every day) and I told her I was going to eat (like I do every day). She laughed and shook her head and talked to me in Thai for about a minute straight. and the whole time I smiled and laughed when she laughed and nodded my head vigorously when it seemed approprate and made the "uuhhhh, uuuhh" sound that means (as far as I can tell) "yes, yes, I see, ok, hmm, really?, interesting." Basically, "I'm listening to you." This is how our conversations normally go, but this evening I got a treat at the end. As I said goodbye she offered me a bag of little leaf-wrapped treats which she said were sweet and made of rice and tua, which in Thai is a broad word for nut, bean or seed. So I still had no idea what I was getting.
Turns out it was a sticky rice dessert. A little pink, yes pink, banana surrounded by coconutty sticky rice and some sweet black beans, all wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed.
A warm, sticky, sweet, chewy little parcel to finish off my last supper of tom yam goong and rice and eggs.
